TWO sisters yesterday celebrated their 101st birthday as officially the oldest twins in the world.

Ena Pugh and Lily Millward, born together on January 4, 1910, were toasted with cups of tea and cake by their family at a special party.

The pair, from Garthbrengy, Powys, were given the accolade by Guinness World Records last year after checking their birth certificates.

Tucking into a piece of birthday cake, Ena said: “We are having a lovely day.” And twin Lily said: “Thank you very much – it’s lovely to be together.”

Farmer’s daughters Ena and Lily were born before the outbreak of World War 1 when Queen Victoria’s son Edward VII was king. The pair still meet up for weekly shopping sessions and chat on the telephone virtually every night.

Great-grandmother Lily revealed the secret of their long life was “laughter and having a joke with each other”.

She said: “We used to work on the farm all day, but we would enjoy ourselves. It was a lot of fun and sociable. We’ve been very lucky and we have always had good health.”

Lily’s daughter Dianne Powell, 64, said: “As twins they have been very close all their lives and are still very close now.

“Each of them jumps on a bus on their own every Friday so they can go shopping together and have a chat over a cup of tea.

“And they ring each other almost every evening although they are both very hard of hearing – they can’t really always know what the other is saying but just enjoy talking to each other.”

Ena was born first on a chilly day in January 1910 with Lily a few minutes later in their family farm cottage in the tiny village of Garthbrengy.

Ena married railwayman Ivor who died more than 20 years ago. She still lives in her country cottage where she raised their three children – and now has 10 grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.

Lily lives in a smallholding and has been a widow for nearly 20 years after the death of husband Evan, a former timber merchant. She had two children, five grand-children and nine great-grandchildren.